"The Bold Arcs of Salvation History"

This book offers the first in-depth treatment in English language of Habermas’s long-awaited work on religion, Auch eine Geschichte der Philosophie, published in 2019. Charting the contingent origins and turning points of occidental thinking through to the current "postmetaphysical" stage, the two volumes provide striking insights into the intellectual streams and conflicts in which core components of modern self-understanding have been forged. The encounter of Greek metaphysics with biblical monotheism has led to a theology of history as salvation, expanding in bold arcs from Adam’s Fall to Christ and the Last Judgement. The reconstruction of key turns in the relationship between faith and knowledge ends, however, with locating the uniqueness of religion in "ritual" and defining reason as inherently secular. The book exposes the sources and trajectories, analysed by Habermas with great erudition, to different assessments in biblical studies, theology, and philosophy of subjectivity. Apart from Paul and Augustine, key lines of continuity are identified in the Gospels, early patristic theology, Duns Scotus and Schleiermacher that retain the internal connection of faith to autonomous freedom.

From her dual competence in theology and philosophy, Maureen Junker-Kenny analyses with great acuity the premises and conclusions of Jürgen Habermas's major work of tracing the origins of postmetaphysical thinking in the interaction between faith and knowledge. Indispensable for assessing the decisive turns in this relationship, the alternative readings she supplies from biblical studies and theology make for an exciting and innovative study.Herta Nagl-Docekal, Professor em. of Philosophy, University of Vienna Prof. Junker-Kenny's new book puts Habermas's encyclopedic Auch eine Geschichte der Philosophie in the context of the most recent debates in theology, as it also explains from a theologian's perspective what is vital, revealing and challenging in Habermas's new magnum opus. Her work may be one of the fi rst book length treatments of Habermas's contribution to the ceaseless dialogue between religion and philosophy, but it will without question continue to be indispensable as we sift through what his contribution means, entails and commands of us in our postsecular societies.Eduardo Mendieta, Professor of Philosophy, Penn State University

Maureen Junker-Kenny, Trinity College Dublin, Ireland.